Cisco eyes Sri Lanka’s transformation into a digitised nation
An intelligent kiosk
American multinational technology company Cisco Systems Inc is very keen in deploying many of its advanced modern digitised technologies and services in Sri Lanka. The company is in discussions with the government of Sri Lanka on implementing some of its new services, Amit Malik, Cisco Director for India and SAARC told the Business Times on the sidelines of the Cisco Summit held in Rajasthan, India recently. Adding to that Mr. Malik noted that digitisation is taking place everywhere in the world and that is the future of everything and anything. Mobile phone and Internet penetration within a country has increased far more than it used to be in the past. With all these devices evolving, people using them very often and digitisation happening, everything is just away at a touch of a button, he added.
India’s Jaipur city also known as the pink city of Rajasthan, the largest state in India, has its cultural and disciplinary values with many historic stories to review about the kings and their lifestyles. Cisco held its annual summit in this Jaipur City recently inviting a few journalists from Sri Lanka and different states of India. At the summit, Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje outlined her vision of a digital future for Rajasthan by leveraging ICT to enable good governance, better quality of life and increased employment opportunities. She said, “My vision for the state is to digitally empower every citizen to enhance the quality of life, enable ease of doing business in the state and become an innovation and knowledge hub of the country. ‘Digital Rajasthan’ is a powerful platform to realise that vision. We envision Rajasthan as a role model for digital transformation for other states to follow. The state of Rajasthan recognises the effort of Cisco to help us lead in this transformation.”
Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) in its first phase has created digital infrastructure including intelligent kiosks, wireless broadband, safety and security services, traffic management and environmental updates. JDA has set up a City Infrastructure Management Centre (CIMC) and a Response Control Room to manage the city with greater efficiency and effectiveness. In Jaipur’s CIMC nearly all the solutions are integrated into a digital platform. The digital platform built by JDA can aggregate data from various sensors and solutions, conduct data analytics and support a number of urban services. In this phase, JDA has implemented the solutions at Jantarmantar, Amer Fort, Albert Hall, Jal Mahal, Ram Niwas Bagh, Hawa Mahal, Central Park and Jawahar Circle.
The next phase of implementation in another 25 sites will be completed by the end of February 201, as mentioned during a media site visit to the Amer Fort. At the Amer Fort in Jaipur some of the digital technology of Cisco were deployed such as connected parking, connected lighting, WiFi, interactive intelligent kiosks with environmental sensors, city surveillance for safety and security and Remote Expert for Government Services.
During the summit JDA Commissioner Shikhar Agarwal said, “The initiative to transform Jaipur into a smart city has gathered tremendous momentum since its launch in May 2014. Today citizens of Jaipur are digitally empowered and this is just the beginning.
The vision outlined by our Chief Minister will help build the state to the forefront of the digital revolution. We are certain that we will benefit from the experience and expertise Cisco brings through numerous smart city projects the company has undertaken globally.” Cisco India & SAARC President, Dinesh Malkani said, “Digitisation will be key to how cities, communities and countries maintain global competitiveness, increase GDP growth, foster innovation and create new jobs.
he foundation for ‘Digital Rajasthan’ will be intelligent networks which will transform the delivery of citizen services. In future competition will be between cities and we believe Rajasthan can turn into a digital hub for the country.” Cisco estimates that there will be 545 million Internet users, 654 million smartphone users and 1.6 billion connected devices in India by 2019. In 2019, mobile data traffic will be equivalent to 51 times the volume of the entire Indian Internet connectivity in 2005 while video will be 66 per cent of India’s mobile data traffic.
As more devices capture more data, interact with more people and change the processes by which people live, learn, work and play, digitisation will have a profound impact on industries. 40 per cent of today’s leading companies globally will be displaced from their market position by digital disruption in the next five years, yet 75 per cent of these companies have yet to address this risk by prioritizing their digital strategy, according to research conducted by the Global Centre for Digital Business Transformation. Digital disruption is a reality today and is transforming every industry from healthcare to education, banking and financial institutions and more.